Caught by a catch-all

In an appeal against an enforcement notice directed at the residential use of a stable block in County Durham (DCS Number 400-020-325) an inspector found no difficulty in identifying the meaning of ‘residential paraphernalia’.

The appellant argued that the requirement to remove residential paraphernalia, fixtures and fittings, within the building was excessive and also that residential paraphernalia was insufficiently defined. However, the inspector noted that paraphernalia is defined in the Oxford dictionary as “miscellaneous articles, especially the equipment needed for a particular activity”. He was not persuaded that there should be any difficulty identifying miscellaneous articles or fixtures and fittings relating to the residential use of the building and land. He considered the term to be sufficiently precise and not readily open to misinterpretation.

Nonetheless, retrospective permission was granted subject to a unilateral undertaking to remove all items of domestic paraphernalia, including washing lines, children’s play equipment and garden structures and furniture, from specified parts of the site, and thereafter keeping these areas clear of such paraphernalia.

Further appeal examples concerning domestic paraphernalia at residential conversions can be found at section 10.1354 of DCP Online.

A "net health gain" principle should be embedded in national planning policy to ensure that new developments do not contribute to the problem of air pollution, a report by government agency Public Health England has recommended.

The government's Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which sets the policy framework for the expansion of Heathrow airport, should be "set aside and reconsidered" if it is found to be legally flawed, the High Court has been told on the first day of a legal challenge against the airport's expansion.

Plans have been approved for 1,500 homes on an employment site in Salford Quays, including a tower of up to 46 storeys, after officers concluded the development would not compromise neighbouring employment uses.

Plans have been approved for a mixed-use scheme with over 1,100 homes on a site currently used as a retail park off London's Old Kent Road, after planners concluded that the scheme's negative impacts, including the loss of retail space, would be compensated for by "major regeneration benefits".

The government has said it will "robustly defend" itself against a legal challenge which is seeking to have the approval for the expansion of Heathrow airport sent back to Parliament for reconsideration, as the case opens at the High Court today.

The High Court has upheld an inspector's ruling that the size of an area of hard-standing at a fencing company's yard in Surrey was so far in excess of what was required by a building on the site as to render it not ancillary to the building.